It’s been about a year and a half that I first starting hearing about momentum building to allow TIC units to pay to bypass the rather byzantine condo lottery system.  I thought it was exciting news, but unlikely to gain traction in our city.  Still, many TIC owners I spoke with were very positive about the possibility.  Now that the city is in financial distress and looking for new income streams, the idea is back and included in the proposed city budget!

Plan C has the details and included the information in their email action alert yesterday:

The details of the proposal are as follows: TICs must have participated in the 2010 condo conversion lottery in order to be eligible for the condo bypass. The fee for the bypass starts at $20,000 per unit for those who first participated in the lottery in 2010, and declines by 20% for each previous year of unsuccessful lottery participation. So, if 2010 was the first year your TIC participated in the lottery, your fee will be $20,000 per unit in the building. If 2010 was your second year, your fee will be $16,000 per unit. If 2010 was your third year of participation your fee with be $12,000 per unit. If 2010 was your fourth year $8,000/unit, and if it was your fifth year and beyond, $4,000/unit. Note: If your TIC only qualified to participate in the last 25 units which were drawn from Pool B of the 2010 lottery (because of eviction history), you are not eligible for the one-time bypass.

Plan C has been active in promoting this issue and has worked to create a solution that helps tenants as well.

The proposal will bring significant revenue (likely in excess of $8M) to the city during this time of budget crisis – money that will provide funding to affordable and supportive housing programs that might otherwise be cut. At the same time the legislation will bring much needed ownership and mortgage relief to middle income San Franciscans that owner occupy their TICs. This is sensible legislation that helps everyone — it addresses the needs of TIC owners AND provides funding to low-income residents with special housing needs. Tenants are also protected — to be eligible to participate in the lottery, the TIC building must not have been subject to recent Ellis Act evictions, must not have evicted any protected tenants and must not have more than one no fault eviction.

So, what to do to help this proposal be included in the final budget?  Well, I’m going to second the call to action that Plan C proposes:

How you can help?

Email the Mayor and Key Supervisors
The Mayor and the Supervisors need to hear from us — contact them today by clicking on the “Contact City Hall” link to the right — let them know that you support the one-time condo bypass. Tell them that the program would help thousands of first-time homeowners, would hurt no one, and that it would help solve the City’s budget mess. And then tell them that you support overall reform of the completely broken condo conversion process! If you have the time and desire to call them, do that too. You can use this website to do it.

Attend the budget hearing on June 21
The condo bypass will be considered at the budget hearing at City Hall on June 21. The hearing starts at 10AM, and the Condo Bypass is Item Number 4. We don’t expect the Board to get to Item 4 until at least noon. Please come and speak in public comment – tell the supervisors that you support the condo bypass! We know that the opponents of this program will be out in force – so it is critical to have supporters there as well. If you are able to attend the hearing, let us know by email at info@plancsf.org – we may be able to give you better information as to exactly when to show up as it gets closer to June 21.

What else can you do?  Join Plan C,  at least sign up for their email updates, talk to other interested owners and get people to email and call our representatives.  This is a real opportunity to try and get this done!  For all you owners with group loans, wouldn’t you love to be able to have your own loan as rates are so low currently?  It’s time to embrace this and allow more owners to condo convert!